Foul Lady Fortune

Another fantastic Story in Chloe Gongs universe. I loved the two first books about Roma and Juliette and was very excited for the new pov and Rosalinds story and it didn't disappoint. Again amazing characters to fall in love with and a wonderful plot to escape your life. I absolutely adored how Chloe Gong gave us little but still so good lgbtq+ representation. I'm buying every book Chloe Gong is writing and I love them every time!

After the imperfect ending of „Our Violent Ends“ I was exiting for the new dilogy. You read from different points of view I loved all. The story of Rosalind was the most interesting for me, because she is a character with a hard past and a great development during „Foul Lady Fortune“. She is a brave, passionate and strong woman who found her independence as a spy. I like about her that she didn’t forget her past, especially her family, and look ahead as well. Rosalind learnt from her mistake and fights for her city Shanghai and the persons she loves. But I gladly read about the others main characters, too. Rosalind‘s sister Celia was already one of my favourite characters in the former dilogy and in this story she can be herself at last. In contrast to the Lang sisters or Alisa Montagov I didn’t know the Hong siblings before. Mostly we fellow Orion becoming Rosalind‘s alibi husband and my favourite Hong. He is real family guy who put his family always first. I admire his loyalty the most. But my favourite scenes were the shared between him and Rosalind. At the beginning they are only bickering (which was very funny) and with the time the newly weds build their trust as well as heal their old wounds together. They become a great and supporting team, although Rosalind and Orion learn each others‘ flaws, too. I liked them much more than her sister Celia and his brother Oliver together. The whole setting Shanghai 1931 was very intriguing and different from Shanghai 1926. There are more factions like Nationalists, Japanese and some more who fight for the rule over Shanghai and different spies everywhere. It was a exciting situation because you (and the characters) never know who you can trust and who is on which side. Concurrently I love historical settings where you learn something about the „real“ past. The story is a great mix of historical fiction, political schemes, mystery crime and some fantasy elements, because of that you never know what to expect. At first the book develops slowly, but constantly. Throughout the story you learn more and more about the characters, the world and the many secrets. We have a new mysterious person/monster which attacks at night with chemicals and all protagonists need to uncover. Chloe Gong wrote a complexity story where every little detail matters at the end. The isn’t any boring moment. On the contrary you get surprised regularly because of the many plot twists. I hope and fight along the characters during the whole book. Especially the last ten chapters are full of twists and surprises. I couldn’t stop reading and get shocked more than once. My heart gets even broken because the cliffhanger at the end is open and nasty. I cannot expect the second volume and my anticipation increased thanks to the last sentence. I have a guess and hope that I‘m right. CONCLUSION: 4/5 STARS If you loved „These Violent Delights“, you will also love „Foul Lady Fortune“

Foul Lady Fortune by Chloe Gong is set in the same world as These Violent Delights and it’s set after that duology. You can read Foul Lady Fortune on its own, but if you also plan to read These Violent Delights read that first. In this story we follow Rosalind who is a spy and likes to come for enemies with poison. She is an absolute badass and I really liked how clever and full of wit she is. Rosalind also has a unique ability that only added to it. She was my favorite part of this story. The book is very historical and that was well researched and I also liked how the author explained her research and inspiration for that in the author‘s note. It’s set in Shanghai in 1931 when a lot of murders appear. Rosalind investigates those and in the process teams up with Orion, who is also a spy, and the two pose as a married couple. Their banter was really good. The story was fast paced and it felt a lot like a movie that played in your head. In addition, Foul Lady Fortune is very rich and complex in secrets, intrigue, history and politics and was interesting to see even though sometimes I got a bit lost in all of that. Overall, if you are looking for an enthralling read with spies, history and a dash of romance this will be perfect. 4 stars. (ARC kindly provided in exchange for a review.)